Author Guest Post with Adria Carmichael, Juche Box Set

A highly addictive Young Adult Dystopian Survival Saga that will keep you glued to the pages.

Welcome to the September 20th stop on the blog tour for the Juche 1-4 Box set by Adria Carmichael with Goddess Fish Promotions. Be sure to follow the rest of the tour for spotlights, reviews, more author guest posts, and a giveaway! More on that at the end of this post.

Please note that this post contains affiliate links, which means there is no additional cost to you if you shop using my links, but I will earn a small percentage in commission. A program-specific disclaimer is at the bottom of this post.

Author Guest Post

Advice to new writers.

My main advice for new writers would be to be patient and don’t set a monetary value on your dream to become a published author. If you’re goal is to make money quickly, writing a book is probably the last thing you should do as writing and editing the first book itself will take a couple of years (the next ones go faster, of course), and if you self publish, you’re throwing your book into an ocean with millions of other books. Then, your success will mostly be determined by how well you manage social media. If you’re traditionally published and you got a decent marketing package in the deal, your situation will be different, of course. But regardless, if you write with the sole purpose of making money, you will most likely be disappointed. Write for yourself and be proud of your accomplishments.

My second advice would be to be careful how much money you spend on marketing, because even if many promoters promise to make you a best-selling author in no time, those promises are vastly exaggerated. That said, you need to spend some money on promotion. I’ve had some success with facebook/google/amazon ads, but that’s one of the most expensive marketing choices, so decide how much you’re willing to spend beforehand, and try not to get excited and boost your daily budget when you see some results – a few reminders that your book exists each week is much more effective than a huge daily budget that bankrupts you in a couple of weeks. Also remember that sales today won’t give you money for another two-three months when the royalty payments are made. I am also using book blog tours, which basically is that you pay a company that has a network of book bloggers to post about your book with a number of stops over a week or so. There are many book blog tour organizers out there, so do diligent research before settling on one. They vary vastly in effectiveness, and some are focused on a specific genre, so be sure to check that as well. And same as other types of promotions, they become more effective once you’re more established as an author and people will recognize your name and brand. Lastly, I would recommend the discount book newsletter when you offer your book for free or for a lower price, because then you can reach hundreds of thousands of readers instantly. Also there, there are better and worse options, but since most are not too expensive, you can probably afford some trial and error. The number one newsletter is Bookbub, where you can reach over a million readers, but due to it’s popularity, they reject 80-90% of all submissions. I have yet to be accepted myself, but will make a new attempt when I release my four-book box set.

As a very last advice – be wary of scammers! There are so many out there it’s mindboggling, so be careful. The golden rule to stay safe is not to reply when you are being contacted. Do your research beforehand and always be the one to contact the promoters you have chosen.

Good luck! 🙂

About the Set

Juche 1-4 Box Set
A Young Adult Dystopian Survival Saga
by Adria Carmichael

Published 6 June 2022
Genre: YA Dystopian
Page Count: 1637
Add it to your Goodreads TBR!

Just when Areum – daughter of a privileged family in the totalitarian state of Choson (North Korea) – thought she was free from her personal prison, her world collapses around her as her family is taken away in the middle of the night to a hell-like camp in the mountains where people who have strayed from the righteous path are brutally re-educated through blood, sweat, tears, and starvation.

There she has to fight for survival together with the family she hates and is forced to re-evaluate every aspect of her life until then: her deep resentment toward her twin sister; her view of her father in the face of mounting evidence that he is a traitor with the blood of millions of fellow countrymen on his hands; and even her love and affection for the Great General – the eternal savior and protector of Choson, whom she had always considered her true father.

Amazon US | Amazon CA | Amazon UK

Note from the author:

Have you ever wondered what the world looks like when seen through an indoctrinated mind?

This is a topic that has intrigued me for as long as I can remember, so when I came up with the idea to write a book many years ago, I decided to create it from the viewpoint of a victim of indoctrination… which in the end became Areum (the protagonist of the story).

What I try to explore in this story is how deep the indoctrination of a 14-year old girl can run and how much “reality” it can be exposed to before breaking… if it will break at all. As a comparison, the defectors from North Korea who arrive in South Korea are isolated for three months in a de-programming facility called Hanawon before they are allowed to join society where they go through this process in a more controlled (and less brutal) way than Areum.

I hope you will enjoy this slightly different take on the dystopian genre!

Excerpt

My father’s words echo in my head.

“Hamhung”

“Hamhung”

I’m standing in a long wide street. There are tall houses on both sides of me.

Where am I?

I don’t recognize anything, but still, everything looks familiar.

Then I notice there is something on the ground around me. I try to focus, but my vision is blurry. There is something there. Some kind of objects.

Or…

Now the focus is getting clearer. They are bodies! They are everywhere. I jump in panic. I want to run away, but my feet are stuck to the ground.

I’m standing in a sea of sun-scorched, dried up corpses – as far as the eye can reach. Then I feel it. The stench of their decay stings my nose. I feel nauseous. I look down at the corpse closest to me. A man. He looks so strange. Like all his muscles and fat has been removed, and his skin tightly wrapped around his bare bones. All the corpses look the same.

All of a sudden, there is a movement in the corner of my eye. I turn my head.

Paralyzed with fear I watch one of the corpses rising until he stands before me a bit further down the street of death. He doesn’t move, just looks at me with his dead silvery eyes. My blood is freezing to ice inside my veins. I look closer, squinting against the distant sun. The features of the man look strangely familiar. Then I suddenly see it. I gasp, and a flash of ice rushes down my spine.

About the Author

Adria Carmichael is a writer of dystopian fiction with a twist. When she is not devouring dystopian and post-apocalyptic content in any format – books, movies, TV-series and PlayStation games – she is crafting the epic and highly-addictive Juche saga, her 2020 debut novel series that takes place in the brutal, totalitarian nation of Choson. When the limit of doom and gloom is reached, a 10K run on a sunny day or binging a silly sitcom on a rainy day is her go-to way to unwind.

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